Interpersonal (Behavioral)

Sonia Aranza
CEO
Aranza Global Cross-Cultural Strategies
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Global Speaker Sonia Aranza has presented on the international stage from Spain to Singapore.  She brings 27+ years of experience in Diversity, Inclusion & Global Leadership. Her clients include Boeing, CIA, McDonald’s and more. The U.S. Department of Labor describes her work as “Outstanding” and was selected to execute programs for landmark cases. SHRM featured her as a Diversity & Inclusion Expert in HR Magazine and she is a LinkedIn Top Voice in Leadership. She serves on the Faculty of Howard University’s Executive Diversity Program; named “100 Most Influential Filipina Americans in the United States” and honored “100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World.”

SESSIONS:
Anjelica Dortch
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
Senior Director of U.S. Government Affairs
SAP
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Anjelica Dortch is Senior Director of U.S. Government Affairs at SAP – the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software – where she manages the company’s cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and workforce policy portfolio. Prior to joining SAP, Anjelica led scale up of tech policy positions at IBM within the Government and Regulatory Affairs team with a focus on artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud, and intellectual property.

Anjelica spent 10 years working for a variety of federal agencies to include being a Senior Technology Advisor within the White House where she led coordination of several tech policy initiatives within the U.S. Government.  She was co-author to U.S. policies and strategies including the National Cyber Strategy, the U.S. Federal Cloud Computing Strategy (Cloud Smart), and the Administration’s Report on Artificial Intelligence.

Anjelica is the recipient of the IBM Landmark award, Women Leading for Impact award, the University of Maryland Outstanding Alumnus award, and Federal Computer Week's Rising Star award. Anjelica holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy and a Master of Science in Financial Management and Information Systems from the University of Maryland.

SESSIONS:
Ken Meyer, SHRM-SCP
Principal, KWM HR Consulting LLC
President, New York City SHRM
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Ken provides his clients with a wide range of services, including Management Coaching, Employee Coaching, Labor Relations Support, Workplace Investigations, Training and Leadership Development, Human Resources Strategic Planning, Human Resources Operations and Services, Total Rewards Services, and Talent Acquisition. He has had a 30+ year career with key roles in Healthcare organizations in both For-Profit and Not-for-Profit settings such as Ryan Health, Community Healthcare Network, Aptium Oncology, Inc., Hebrew Home at Riverdale, Strang Cancer Prevention Center, Kingsboro Medical Group, St. Joseph Services for Children and Families, Professional Resources of New York, and New York Presbyterian Hospital. 

He is a graduate of Cornell University/Bernard M. Baruch College with a Master of Science in Industrial and Labor Relations (MSILR, Major Concentration in Human Resource Management), and Herbert H. Lehman College with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics (BA, Major Concentration in Business Management). He is also a member of the Beta Gamma Sigma and Golden Key National Honor Societies. Additionally, Ken is certified as a Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) through the Society for Human Resource Management and he is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) through the HR Certification Institute. 

Ken also gives back to the Human Resources profession through his work with New York City SHRM, the oldest local chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management, where he serves on its Board of Directors and has been the chapter’s President since July 1, 2022.                                                                                                         

SESSIONS:
Megan Smith-Branch
Deputy Lead, AI Ethics and Safety Team
Booz Allen Hamilton
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Megan is the Deputy Lead of the Responsible AI team at Booz Allen Hamilton, with a focus on scaling the operationalization and advancement of Responsible AI across the Civil, Defense, and Intelligence sectors. In addition to her work advancing Ethical AI, she leverages her unique learning and development (L&D) and I/O Psychology experience as an advisor on AI change management initiatives.

Previously Megan helped launch and served as COO for CertNexus, a personnel certification company focused on developing vendor neutral high stakes certifications for emerging technologies including Data and AI Ethics, Data Science, AI, IoT and Cybersecurity. As part of this she managed the organization’s ISO accreditation, and DoD 8140 Directive approvals, co-led marketing and served as a subject matter expert for the business credentialling curriculum including co-authoring the Data Ethics for Business Professionals course, and as an instructor and advisor on two Coursera specializations on AI and AI Ethics.

Megan currently serves as lead on the NIST’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education Talent Management employers guide to effective job descriptions project team, and formerly sat on the board for the Cybersecurity Credentials Collaborative, and California Technology Council. 

Megan holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts and Psychology from Alfred University and is currently completing her Master of Science in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at George Mason University, where her research is focused on the impact of microaggressions on perceived organizational fit. She is the proud mother of two young adults and one canine and resides in Rochester, NY, with her husband. 

SESSIONS:
Moderator: 
Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP
Chief Data & Insights Officer
SHRM
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Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Data & Insights Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.

During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).

Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.

Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.

Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.

SESSIONS:
Clayton Lord
Personal Pronouns
He/Him/His
Director, Foundation Programs
SHRM
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Clayton Lord (Clay, he/him) oversees strategy, planning, program delivery, and program evaluation for the SHRM Foundation, the 501(c)3 nonprofit arm of SHRM, which focuses on widening pathways to work and helping every worker and workplace thrive by empowering HR leaders to be forces for social good. He is a social impact executive who has spent his career driving systemic change in the world of work. Clay is also a writer, painter, and quilter, as well as a travel fanatic, and holds a B.A. in English and Psychology from Georgetown University. He lives with his husband and daughter in Maryland.

SESSIONS:
Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP
Chief Data & Insights Officer
SHRM
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Alexander Alonso, PhD, SHRM-SCP is the Society for Human Resource Management's (SHRM's) Chief Data & Insights Officer leading operations for SHRM's Certified Professional and Senior Certified Professional certifications, research functions, and the SHRM Knowledge Advisor service. He is responsible for all research activities, including the development of the SHRM Competency Model and SHRM credentials.

During his career, he has worked with numerous subject matter experts worldwide with the aim of identifying performance standards, developing competency models, designing organizational assessments, and conducting job analyses. He was also responsible for working on contract task orders involving the development of measurement tools for content areas such as job knowledge (like teacher knowledge of instructional processes) and organizational climates (like organizational climate forecasting in military health care).

Dr. Alonso received his doctorate in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Florida International University in 2003. His works have been recognized for their contribution to real-world issues. They include being recognized by the Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology (Division 14 of the APA; SIOP) with the 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for the development of the federal standard for medical team training, TeamSTEPPS; being awarded a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for supporting the development of competency model for team triage in emergency medicine; and receiving the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award.

Throughout his career, he has published works in peer-reviewed journals such as Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, Journal of Applied Psychology, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, People and Strategy, Personality and Individual Differences, Quality and Safety in Health Care, and Human Resources Management Review. He has also authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, as well as co-authoring Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice.

Dr. Alonso also served as a columnist analyzing major trends in the workforce for The Industrial Psychologist and HR Magazine. In addition, he has served on several professional society boards including the SIOP and the Personnel Testing Council of Metropolitan Washington.

SESSIONS:
Cara Chennault-Reid
Human Resources Director
Koch Industries
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Cara Chennault-Reid is Koch Industries’ corporate human resource director, based at the global headquarters in Wichita, Kansas. In her role, Cara leads the human resource capability with over 700 HR professionals supporting 125,000 employees worldwide. She helps advance business vision and strategies through talent management while accelerating the application of Koch’s framework, Principle Based ManagementTM.

Cara and her team focus on helping employees who are contribution motivated achieve their full potential.

In 2006, Cara began her career at INVISTA, a Koch company, leading several global human resource and talent acquisition teams. In 2017, she became the chief operating officer at Koch Global Services, driving a vision for the delivery of shared services within the human resources, facilities, and real estate services.

Prior to joining Koch, Cara spent 12 years with a global consumer products company in various human resource and operations leadership roles.
Cara holds a Bachelor of Science in communications and organizational psychology from the University of Tennessee. She and her husband John live in Wichita, KS and have two daughters.

SESSIONS:
Kate Smalkin
SVP of Employer Partnerships
Climb Hire
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Kate currently serves as the SVP of Partnerships for Climb Hire. Most recently, Kate served as Global Talent Lead for Public.com, a venture-backed high-growth retail investment startup based in New York. This is actually Kate’s second stint at Climb Hire - from 2019-2022 she built Climb Hire’s employer partnerships function from scratch, having built 60+ partnerships with companies like Google, Salesforce, Microsoft, Discord, IBM, Gusto, and more. Prior to Climb Hire, she was an Associate Partner with Arete Partners, a boutique SF-based executive search firm, where she ran VP+ level searches in Engineering, Product Marketing, Product Management, and more for Seed-Series A startups globally. Previously, Kate held leadership roles in sales & recruiting at Frederickson Partners in Menlo Park, where she oversaw business development, co-led the consulting & contracting practice, and ran C-level HR searches for marquee companies nationwide. Kate holds an M.A. in Philosophy of Religion from Yale University and a B.A. in French from the University of Redlands. She's thrilled to continue pushing the envelope on systems-level change with Climb Hire, helping companies think more broadly and creatively about entry-level hiring.

SESSIONS:
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Stephanie Wormington
Director, Global Research & Analytics
Center for Creative Leadership
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Stephanie Wormington is a Senior Research Scientist and Manager of Global Strategic Research at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). Her current research focuses primarily on promoting equitable and inclusive organizational cultures, exploring collective leadership through networks, and enhancing motivation and empowerment for leaders across their professional journeys. Prior to joining CCL, Stephanie was an assistant professor in the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.

 

SESSIONS:
Andrew Loignon
Senior Research Scientist
Center for Creative Leadership
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Andy Loignon has over a decade of experience working as an organizational scientist identifying data-driven solutions that help organizations address some of their most pressing challenges. In his current role as a Research Scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), Andy’s research focuses on work groups and teams and emerging leaders. Prior to joining CCL, Andy was a member of the faculty at Louisiana State University.

 

 

SESSIONS:
Todd James Lemmis, JD
Founding Partner
Pacific6 Enterprises
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Todd Lemmis is an author, organizational architect, musician, lawyer, and impact investor/developer. His diverse background in human resources, music, law, and business leadership affords him a creative, whole-brain perspective and approach to all the adventures he undertakes. 

His seminal work involves transforming organizational design with a simple, natural approach that unlocks the keys to career development and employee retention through his novel, common model. It simplifies organizational architecture, job competencies, career pathing, job descriptions, job families and succession planning, resulting in happier, more stable, productive organizations.

Todd’s current work with Pacific6, Enterprises, a Long Beach, California based investment/development firm involves impact investment and development of hotels, multi-family properties, aquaculture, and HR consulting. Within Pacific6, Todd focuses on human resources, public and government relations, development, consulting and design.

Todd holds a BA in philosophy from UCLA and a JD from Southwestern University School of Law. For fun, he loves writing, music, reading, cooking, entertaining, and designing leather goods and ceramics. In addition to his proprietary works on organizational architecture and human development, he invented a punctuation mark and developed a couple of colognes.

Todd lives in Long Beach, California with his awesome, patient wife and three children. He’s a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the US Navy Musician’s Association, and Costco. He also likes cats.

 

SESSIONS:
Tuesday, June 13, 2023 - 10:30am to 11:30am
Todd James Lemmis, JD
Founding Partner
Pacific6 Enterprises
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Todd Lemmis is an author, organizational architect, musician, lawyer, and impact investor/developer. His diverse background in human resources, music, law, and business leadership affords him a creative, whole-brain perspective and approach to all the adventures he undertakes. 

His seminal work involves transforming organizational design with a simple, natural approach that unlocks the keys to career development and employee retention through his novel, common model. It simplifies organizational architecture, job competencies, career pathing, job descriptions, job families and succession planning, resulting in happier, more stable, productive organizations.

Todd’s current work with Pacific6, Enterprises, a Long Beach, California based investment/development firm involves impact investment and development of hotels, multi-family properties, aquaculture, and HR consulting. Within Pacific6, Todd focuses on human resources, public and government relations, development, consulting and design.

Todd holds a BA in philosophy from UCLA and a JD from Southwestern University School of Law. For fun, he loves writing, music, reading, cooking, entertaining, and designing leather goods and ceramics. In addition to his proprietary works on organizational architecture and human development, he invented a punctuation mark and developed a couple of colognes.

Todd lives in Long Beach, California with his awesome, patient wife and three children. He’s a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, the US Navy Musician’s Association, and Costco. He also likes cats.

 

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 12, 2023 - 10:30am to 11:30am
Rachel Druckenmiller
Founder and CEO
Unmuted LLC
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With nearly 20 years of experience, Rachel Druckenmiller is a keynote speaker, TEDx speaker, and leadership trainer on a mission to unleash purpose, passion, and potential in people and organizations. By leveraging the power of curiosity, Rachel helps people elevate their clarity, confidence, and courage, so they live and lead with greater intention, influence, and impact at work and in the world. Recognized by Smart Meetings as a 2023 Best of the Stage Speaker, Forbes as a Next1000 Honoree, and Workforce Magazine as a 40 Under 40 Game Changer, Rachel is a trailblazer and thought leader in her field.

SESSIONS:
Dethra U. Giles
Personal Pronouns
She/Her/Hers
CEO
ExecuPrep
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Discover the extraordinary journey of Dethra U. Giles, the visionary force behind ExecuPrep, pioneering leadership development and organizational transformation. Rooted in education, performance optimization, and HR, Dethra empowers individuals, teams, and organizations to surpass their expectations. With degrees in English, Spanish, Business and Conflict Management, she blends communication and cultural understanding seamlessly. As a respected faculty member and TEDx speaker, her influence resonates globally, shaping inclusive cultures in corporate giants like LVMH and the EPA. Dethra's compassion fuels her advocacy for social justice, while her writings and media presence inspire resilience and growth. With her, the future promises boundless opportunity and transformation.

SESSIONS:
Lisa Cooper
Co-founder
Workplace Healing
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Lisa Cooper, Co-Founder of Workplace Healing and the Human Recovery Platform™ helps corporate leaders recognize how empathy can help them engage an employee experiencing a life disruption and lead a high-performing team. By striking a delicate balance of thought and humanity, leaders enhance team performance, corporate culture and fiscal well-being.  

 A former marketing professional, Lisa earned a reputation in the advertising industry for driving creative solutions as she led marketing campaigns for Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. She built upon her corporate success by launching a consulting practice and sharing her expertise in teaching graduate-level marketing classes.   

SESSIONS:
Mindy Corporon
Co-founder
Workplace Healing
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Mindy Corporon, Co-Founder of Workplace Healing and the Human Recovery Platform™ helps corporate leaders transform how they support an employee experiencing a life disruption. By balancing the head-based corporate environment with empathetic heart-based support, leaders preserve long-term productivity, retention and morale.  

The former CEO of a successful wealth management firm, Mindy was in the middle of raising two talented boys when her father and oldest son were murdered by a white supremacist intent on killing Jews. Her life purpose changed from guiding people financially to shaping how initiatives focused on increasing confidence in leadership can positively impact culture.  

SESSIONS:
Shari Harley, MA, CSP
Founder and President
Candid Culture
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Shari Harley, author of How to Say Anything to Anyone, is known globally as an engaging, funny, content-rich business speaker. Her international training firm, Candid Culture, is making it easier to tell the truth at work. Shari is bringing candor back to the workplace. A former HR practitioner and operations leader, Shari’s practical approach has led her to speak and train in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Dubai and Australia. From “Making Meetings Work” and “Delegating Better” to “Managing Your Career” and “Saying Anything to Anyone,” Shari’s tips are sure to delight and inform in a real, direct and very funny way. Watch videos and learn more about Shari at www.candidculture.com.

 

SESSIONS:
Monday, June 12, 2023 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm